■REAL ESTATE File Photo The Cigar Factory sells for $31.1M BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO LIC development proposed with bridge to Roosevelt Island: report BY LIC COURIER STAFF Plans have been revealed that would connect the Queens waterfront to the future home of the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island — all through a pedestrian and bicyclist bridge, according to a published report. According to POLITICO New York, a group of investors have proposed a multimillion square-foot development near the Long Island City waterfront that would be made up of a mixed-use project including a pedestrian bridge connecting the Queens neighborhood to Roosevelt Island. The plans are from Bruce Teitelbaum, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s former chief of staff, and involve a “mostly residential tower comprising at least 1 million square feet” located on an empty lot north of 44th Drive, along the south side of the Queensboro Bridge, according to the online publication. The proposed site for the development at 44-02 Vernon Blvd. currently is owned by Vernon Realty Holding LLC and is zoned for residential use, according to the report. One lot of the site takes up 128,332 square feet, while an adjoining lot is made up of 84,338 square feet. The plans were presented to Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development, who showed excitement for the project but said it was “a little out of scale,” according to POLITICO. Construction on the $2 million Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, which will span 12 acres and house 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff, began in June. The first phase of the campus is expected to open in the summer of 2017. REPORT: Macy’s leases studio space at LIC Factory Building BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO Macy’s has chosen Long Island City to be the new home of its photo studio and set space, moving the site from Brooklyn, according to a published report. The store recently signed a lease taking over 150,000 square feet of space at the 10-story, block-long industrial Factory Building, located at 30-30 47th Ave., according to Crain’s New York. The location will serve as a new site to photograph the department store’s merchandise. Currently, Macy’s studio is located on different floors at its Fulton Street store in Brooklyn. Long Island City’s Factory Building was formerly known as the Long Island City Business Center and was built in the mid-1920s and used as a warehouse for Macy’s. A few years earlier, the five-floor, block-long Falchi Building was built and was a storage and distribution facility for the former Gimbels department store, a rival of Macy’s. The one million-square-foot building is owned by Atlas Capital, Square Mile and Invesco. According to Crain’s, the Macy’s deal is one of the biggest leases to be signed in Long Island City. In June, luxury chain store Barneys New York took a 10,000-square-foot space at 5-25 46th Ave. in LIC — a three-story building owned by plastic packaging company Plaxall — to move part of its visual department to Queens. After receiving large interest from investors near and far, one historic Long Island City building recently sold in an all-cash transaction for over $30 million, according to realty company Modern Spaces. Manhattan-based real estate private equity firm Brickman scooped up the former DeNobili Cigar Factory located at 35-11 Ninth St. for $31,100,000. The sale of the 102,670-square-foot building, which also included a 5,000-square-foot parking lot at 35-31 Ninth St., was announced on Aug. 25 by Modern Spaces’ Commercial and Investment Property Group. “Tremendous demand from local, national and international investors led to a price point of approximately $302.91 per square foot in just eight weeks of marketing,” said Evan Daniel of Modern Spaces who spearheaded the marketing of the site with Edward DiTomasso. “The sale to Brickman speaks to the strength of the office and investment market, a trend that continues to prove that Long Island City is quickly becoming a destination for institutional capital and truly a mixed-use, live/work neighborhood.” The four-story office/loft building also known as “The Cigar Factory” was built in 1896 and once housed the DeNobili Cigar company. It currently features 57 commercial units and two cell towers. Due to its zoning, The Cigar Factory is ideal for future residential conversion with 14- to 22-foot ceilings, and features such as exposed beams, arched windows and hardwood floors. The site is located just a block from the Long Island City waterfront and is close to major subway lines and highways. “Demand for such space has exploded this year leading to dramatic rent increases throughout western Queens,” Daniel said. “The development of the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island will create more jobs and further put significant upward pressure on office demand and rent growth.”
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